Using Technology to Deepen Democracy, Using Democracy to Ensure Technology Benefits Us All

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Summer Intensives Begin

Today I begin teaching my "Patriarchal Convention and Conviction in
Greek and Roman Antiquity" course at Berkeley. Tomorrow "What Is
Compelling: Argumentation, Reconciliation, Obligation" begins. These are
summer intensives, packing a semester's worth of material in a six week
span. Teaching one is a bit bonkers, but two simultaneously is
terrorizing. I've been doing these for two decades now, and I have
taught many versions of each of these specific courses as well (this is
my fourth summer in a row teaching the Greek/Roman course, the eighth
time I've taught the argument and violence course). Today's lecture is
short and introductory, but still packs a wallop, and by tomorrow we
will already be diving deep into the Iliad and Gorgias' "Encomium," so
summer intensive is apt as can be. As usual new class jitters
gave me a fitful night's sleep last night, and so I begin feeling a bit
tired -- an exhaustion that will almost certainly dog me till I hand in
final grades over the July fourth holiday. Don't quite know yet how this will affect blogging this year. Sometimes I shut down, sometimes teaching is a spur. We'll see.